News about reptiles and amphibians. This may be news from herpetologists, organizations, but also from private persons. Everyone is welcome to send me some news about the protection, abusing, mistreatment, discoveries, etc., of these fascinating animals .

Demand
for exotic pets is driving the illegal harvest and trade of
herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians) in Indonesian New Guinea,
according to a recent study published in the journal Biodiversity and
Conservation.

Wild
carpet pythons (Morelia spilota) are traded on a legal quota system,
but researchers say the quota is often exceeded. Photo courtesy of
Jessica Lyons.

Between September 2010 and April 2011, Daniel Natusch and Jessica Lyons
of the University of New South Wales surveyed traders of amphibians and
reptiles in the Indonesian provinces of Maluku, West Papua and Papua.

According to the paper, they recorded, "5,370 individuals representing
52 species collected solely for the pet trade. At least 44 % were either
fully protected or had not been allocated a harvest quota, making their
harvest and trade illegal. Approximately half were listed within the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES)."

CITES,
which Indonesia became a party to in 1979, regulates international
wildlife trade. Under CITES, certain species are assigned a harvest
quota; a specific number of individuals that can be collected from the
wild. Animals listed as "fully protected" or without an assigned harvest
quota cannot be legally collected or traded.

The Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation
(PHKA) is responsible for the monitoring and enforcement of CITES
regulations in Indonesia. Natusch and Lyons' findings suggest that there
are some key gaps in PHKA’s enforcement.

"Illegal trade is due, partly, to an inadequate understanding of the
species being traded and is facilitated by poor monitoring and
enforcement at key trade hubs," they write.

A 2011 paper, also by Lyons and Natusch, focusing on the illegal
laundering of green pythons asserted similar findings. A report
submitted by Indonesia at the CITES Asian Snake Trade Workshop in 2011
claimed that there was no illegal trade in Indonesian snakes. However,
Lyons and Natusch uncovered a different story—that breeding farms were
being used to illegally launder wild caught snakes.

Illegally
traded green python (Morelia viridis) with head injury likely due to
being in a cramped, wet cage. The snake may have rubbed itself raw
trying to escape. Photo courtesy of Jessica Lyons.

Between April 2009 and Sept 2011, the authors surveyed traders who supplied the market for green pythons (Morelia viridis).
Commercial trade in green pythons is legitimate when the traded
individuals are bred in captivity, but harvesting green pythons form the
wild is strictly illegal. However, it appears that many traders are
taking advantage of an inadvertent loophole in the system. Local
collectors harvest snakes in the wild, and sell them to breeding farms,
which pass these snakes off as captive bred.

"Extrapolation of monthly collection estimates provided by traders
revealed that at least 5,337 green pythons are collected each year,
suggesting that at least 80% of the green pythons exported from
Indonesia annually are illegally wild-caught," the scientists wrote last
year.

The authors suggest many methods to counter the laundering of illegally
caught wildlife. One novel method is ensuring that the snakes are sold
along with their eggshells, which can be measured to verify
authenticity.

"Merely the requirement of having to enclose eggshells within shipments
(and not even measuring them) would curtail much of the trade," Lyons
told mongabay.com.

As of yet, this method has not been implemented.
In addition, Natusch and Lyons recommend, "the need for increased
monitoring and enforcement, improving the knowledge base of species
traded and educating consumers about the effects their demand for pets
has on these species."

Natusch, D. J. D., and Lyons, J.A. Exploited for pets: the harvest and
trade of amphibians and reptiles from Indonesian New Guinea.
Biodiversity and Conservation. (2012), doi: 10.1007/s10531-012-0345-8